This is the first of four Fox Sports Ohio "Classic Rewinds" and, for the blog, a sort of "manager and writers report" tune-up for spring game threading. Watching these rewinds, especially the one airing tonight, is a little like watching Titantic - we already know the precise details of the dramatic finish. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the surprise nudity and Celine Dion vocal stylings along the way.

Chuck Klosterman wrote an article exploring the question, "Why is watching a prerecorded sporting event less pleasurable than watching the same game live?" We can cross out some of his reasons why for this particular game - such as, "If this game has already ended and I don't know anything about what happened, it was probably just a game" - because this was a fun and exciting game for Reds fans. You can also choose to forgo using DVR to avoid treating the game like a highlight reel, while preserving some of the dramatic breaks inherent in live TV.

Better still, you can use this real-time game thread to create the illusion the game is unfolding live. You could get a really precise lobotomy to, if not remove the 2011 season, at least Opening Day so that you can experience it anew. In fact, I would recommend rejecting the ridiculous notion that this game is being broadcast from archival material and, instead, embrace the reality that there is no such thing as objective time - moments are relative and perpetual. It's just as plausible that Fox Sports is hooked up to the past through whatever wormhole Dennis Quaid was using in the movie Frequency. The game could turn out differently if you don't comment hard enough.

Whatever you choose to do, let's remember that March 31, 2011 was a happier time in a season that peaked way too early. Ramon Hernandez has since left for purpler mountains (I won't ruin anything, but he has some cool scenes in this one). While the bottom four spots in last season's Opening Day lineup are due to turn over this season, the core of the offense is intact and will be counted on to carry the load this season. Contrast that with the Brewers' lineup: the two pillars of its offense will be gone this Opening Day (Braun for the first 50 games, as of now) - although so will Yuniesky Betancourt.

A quick accounting of the offseason says the Reds stayed at least steady offensively and took a big leap forward with their pitching staff, as the Brewers took a step back on offense. After the first series of 2011, I never would have predicted the Brewers would go on to (SPOILER ALERT) become division champs, but that was myopia in a long season. The Brewers were aggressive in the offseason last year. The Reds let them test out that strategy before they jumped in.

One more SPOILER: the first inning is pretty graphic and not for the feint of heart.

Lineups and vintage game thread content after the junk.

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The Reds' disappointing 2011 performance aside, this has been a fabulously exciting baseball season - perhaps one in a generation. Instead of an anti-climax, we instead got whatever the opposite of that is. And baseball served it up both the final day of the season and in the World Series. Sure, tonight's game could end up being an uninteresting blowout, but the series already had a game six last night that puts it in the same rarefied air as the 1975 World Series. 

Of course, if David Freese and the Cardinals are to the 2011 WS as Carlton Fisk and the BoSox were to the 1975 World Series, then not only do the Cardinals lose, but the Reds win. REDS WIN.

But if the Reds can't win tonight, then one of these two teams probably will. Game Sevens aren't that uncommon (there have been 8 in the last 30 years, or one every 3.75 yr), but it's been almost 10 years. The last one was 2002, when John Lackey led the Angels to a Championship over the Giants. The World has been turned upside-down since then, apparently. That could favor the Rangers, who are the oldest franchise never to win a World Series.

TEX @ STL

8:05pm, Busch Stadium

Matt Harrison vs. Chris Carpenter

FOX

Assuming he doesn't sign with an AL team that doesn't match up with the Reds in inter-league play. Should Lewis be thinking IBB all the way tonight?

Honestly:  this has been an exciting series. A little suspense, but now it's time for a chilly game six (Low of 36 degrees in St. Louis).

TEX @ STL

8:05pm, Busch Stadium

Colby Lewis vs. Jaime Garcia

FOX

With the Rangers leading 3-2, Game 6 at Busch Stadium has been bumped to Thursday. Doppler gamesmanship?

Fire up the banana phone:

-- Via www.fangraphs.com, via  @iracane

Also over at Notgraphs is this menacing image (basically safe for work), that could be mistaken for anime fan art from a weirdo who really wants the Reds to acquire Colby Lewis and turn him into a science project. Makes me long for the Steroids Era. And Neo Tokyo.

At most, we've got three games left in the 2011 baseball season. At least, we've got two. News of the Rangers demise was premature after that Game 3 drubbing.  Someone is going to win. Might as well be YOU.

STL @ TEX (Series tied 2-2)

8:05 pm, Arlington

Chris Carpenter vs. C.J. Wilson

FOX

Welcome to another one of these. For our European friends: Serie W: Real Cardinál vs. Rangers B.C. This Grantland article assigning NBA teams to their corresponding English Premier League clubs made me wonder what the equivalent match-up might be, in other sports, to Cardinals-Rangers. Or even in mediums other than sports: Kinky Friedman vs. Gorp Cranstonbarf, author of How to Complain About Stuff. (This is unfair - and not just because one of those is made up. TS Eliot and Jonathan Franzen are both from STL). 

Let's be honest: the Cardinals are probably going to win this World Series. Mostly because they've won twice as many games as the Rangers so far. Which means they can get away with winning as little as 50% of the remaining games. But also because the Rangers fare poorly given the following formula:

µ Championship (chance of winning) = (Mega-star having storybook postseason in walk year of contract)
(Game 4 starter facial hair good)(Actual games won in World Series)∑dwin Jackson coefficient / (How much I want them to win)

Cardinal resentment is becoming a little passé though, isn't it? A St. Louis World Series won in 2011 does not take away a World Series the Reds were never going to win in 2011. I can't get away from the only meaningful takeaway: that it's going to turn up the flame under Walt that should already be burning bright . If it doesn't, the Cardinals deserve to keep smarming their way to the top.

STL @ TEX

8:05pm, Arlington

Edwin Jackson vs. Derek Holland

FOX

Game 2 was a low-scoring nail-biter in which run prevention took center stage, including this fantabulous play. FanGraphs recently raved about Andrus and Rangers' second baseman Ian Kinsler as the best double-play combo in baseball (and darn you gutter minds for not letting me abbreviate "double-play"). It should be noted, however, that Phillips and Janish didn't have enough reps together to be considered for a three-year window of stable fielding data. With their NL Central counterparts hogging the spotlight (World Series and Theo Epstein coronation) we may have to resort to getting by on delusion for a while: Brandon Phillips and Paul Janish are the REAL best double-play combo in baseball. 

And speaking of offseason delusion, this series features the premier pitching and position player free agents entering the 2012 season in CJ Wilson and Albert Pujols - depending, of course, on whether CC Cabathia and Yu Darvish enter the fray. Here's hoping their WS heroics cause some NL team to overspend that much more.

STL @ TEX

8:05pm, Arlington

Kyle Lohse vs. Matt Harrison

FOX

TEX @ STL (Cardinals lead 1-0)

8:05pm, Busch Stadium

Colby Lewis vs. Jaime Garcia

FOX

As JCH mentioned earlier today in his interview with Johnny Bench - the first-ever (I'm pretty sure) interview of a Reds Hall of Famer this site -  Tim Wisecup of Columbus will be throwing out tonight's first pitch. Johnny Bench will be his ceremonial battery mate.

As for the game itself, there's almost an air of inevitability in my mind in re: the Cardinals. Both of these teams seem to know their roles a little too well, especially with the Rangers playing runners up last season. Someone - or someTHING - will have to disrupt dramaturgical forces working in favor of the Cardinals.